[Onscreen, Naraka seemed to freeze for an instant at Shimura Danzō's question. Even the roiling miasma slowed.]
[After a long pause, his raspy, many-echoed voice sounded again, carrying an air of mystery both sacred and sinister:]
["Break it?"]
["Only those who die," Naraka said, his voice sinking lower, "are released from the curse."]
["Beyond that, neither a change of heart by the writer nor forceful intervention can reverse what has been set in motion."]
[Shimura Danzō had received an answer that put his mind completely at ease.]
[By Naraka's account, once a name was written, the target was as good as dead. Nothing else could change that.]
[The last trace of doubt vanished from his lone eye.]
["I understand." Shimura Danzō's voice regained its familiar gloom and authority. "As for purging the Uchiha, you'll see the result you want."]
["Heh, heh, heh... I look forward to that day, Lord Danzo." Naraka's figure slowly melted back into the shadows, leaving only his final whisper lingering in the miasma.]
[Only Shimura Danzō and a gradually cooling corpse remained in the secret chamber.]
[Shimura Danzō did not so much as glance at the body, as though it were merely waste to be disposed of after an experiment.]
[Then he immediately wrote four characters on the paper.]
[The view suddenly zoomed in. The four characters spelling "Minato Namikaze" filled the entire screen.]
The Canopy Screen went black, marking the end of the day's showing.
Inside the Hokage's Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi's Pipe had broken in two. He stood rigid, as though all his strength had been drained away in an instant.
He had watched his old friend test and accept such an evil power with ease, then use it against Minato.
Grief and fury flooded him. Danzo! What kind of darkness have you embraced?
When Kakashi Hatake saw the Root ninja killed by a tiny Senbon, cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan spun furiously, but he could find no logic behind it. "No Chakra flow, no hand signs, no exchange through a medium. It defies every basic principle of Ninjutsu!"
Kakashi Hatake had fought Root ninja years ago. If the elite ninja onscreen could be killed in such an uncanny way, he would be no exception.
But Shikaku Nara, who had sat in the Hokage's Office with his brow furrowed and his fingers absently tracing the desk, suddenly looked up.
His usually languid face now held an intensely focused, piercing look.
"Lord Third! Honored Advisors!" Shikaku's voice broke the silence. It was still hoarse, but urgent with the discovery of a way forward.
"Think carefully about what Naraka said on the Canopy Screen! His words were: 'Only those who die are released from the curse'!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi jolted, his dull gaze refocusing on Shikaku. "Shikaku, you mean...?"
"Those words... are the key!" Shikaku spoke faster as his mind raced. "They weren't meaningless!"
"They told us exactly how to break the rules governing this power!"
He drew a deep breath and laid out his reasoning:
"First, and most important: death isn't the end. It can break the curse!"
Shikaku's gaze sharpened. "What if... what if the person whose name was written really did 'die,' but was later revived somehow?!"
"By Naraka's own rule—'those who die are released from the curse'—
"when that person comes back, they're in a 'newly born' state! The paper's power may no longer be able to affect the same target a second time!"
He looked straight at Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Revival techniques may sound unbelievable, but they aren't entirely impossible!"
"There's the Second's Impure World Reincarnation, the legendary Sage of Six Paths' revival technique, and perhaps techniques with similar effects in other ninja villages... They're all theoretical possibilities!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes lit up, as though he had glimpsed dawn in endless darkness!
"Of course! If death ends the curse, then it should no longer work after revival! There's a loophole in its logic!"
"Second, following from that, we might even use 'feigned death' to fool it!" Shikaku pressed on, his thoughts moving faster.
"What if we could create a state of feigned death so convincing that it fooled even the 'curse' itself?"
"Perhaps a Yamanaka Clan Secret Technique could temporarily shut down mind and body completely, or some special drug or Sealing Technique could make all vital signs appear to vanish."
"Once the 'curse' judges its target dead and releases its hold because its 'task is complete,' the target could recover from feigned death—and the curse would be broken!"
It was a bolder idea still, but it offered another approach, one that did not require an actual revival technique.
"Third, and most practical for now: the limit on names!" Shikaku's voice steadied as he regained a strategist's composure.
"The Canopy Screen showed that Danzo used one name for the test and another on the Fourth Hokage."
"That paper can hold only one more name!" Shikaku stressed. "It can't be used on a large scale."
"It's more of a strategic deterrent than a tool for clearing a battlefield."
"Danzo won't spend that last name lightly. He'll save it for the target whose death matters most and brings him the greatest advantage."
"Perhaps a mortal enemy he can't deal with by conventional means, like the Fourth Hokage,"
"or whoever becomes the greatest obstacle to his taking the Hokage's seat."
"It's like a long blade held against our necks, and we don't know when it will fall."
"But that also means Danzo will be more cautious about using it. Its value as a threat far exceeds what it can do by killing one person. We mustn't lose our heads over it."
Shikaku finished, breathing a little harder, and met Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes with a steady gaze.
"Revival, feigned death, a limit on names," Hiruzen Sarutobi murmured, his eyes growing brighter. "Shikaku, your analysis makes sense!"
Revival and convincing feigned death would both be extremely difficult, but at least they offered hope in theory and a direction to pursue.
The limit on names also did much to ease the panic at the strategic level.
"Immediately!" Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice regained its old decisiveness. "Bring Shimura Danzō to the Hokage's Office. Make sure he hands over that Death Paper!"
"Yes!" Shikaku Nara bowed to accept the order, relief stirring in his heart.
When facing a power they could not understand, the most frightening thing was not the power itself, but losing the courage to analyze and fight it.
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